Ms. Moran,  

I wanted to respond to your concerns and provide a path to move forward with your issues. I have grouped my responses based on your bulleted items, they are as follows:  

1. Staff did conduct a preliminary field review of your concern as well as reviewed accident data. There did not appear to be significant delays during the AM peak hour and there does not appear to be an accident history at the intersection. Your suggestion related to right turn only from the school parking lot would shift traffic to other intersections and potentially create other issues. These would need to be fully analyzed to determine their impacts. Also, the suggestion to install a traffic signal at Pine Street and Oak Grove would not meet the proper signal warrants (installation guidelines) and would not be a viable option. In light of the new parking lot being constructed for Nativity school, staff will conduct another preliminary field review after construction to determine if any changes have occurred either to delay or accident history, this issue could be revisited at that time.
2. Your second concern related to the parking situation would warrant a more detailed study. The removal of parking on Pine Street from Oak Grove to Ravenswood would have an impact on many property owners in the area. The signatures on the petition represented residents near the Oak Grove section of Pine Street, but not other sections of the street. In order to analyze your concerns and develop alternatives to potentially address your concerns a project would need to be undertaken by the City. The project would need to be approved by City Council through their annual project priority setting process. This project will be listed as a potential project and considered by the Transportation Commission with a recommendation to City Council. The Transportation Commission will consider project priorities for the 2008-2009 fiscal year at its December meeting on Wednesday December 12th at 7:30pm in the City Council Chambers.

If you have any further questions please let me know.  

Thank you,  

Chip Taylor
Transportation Manager
City of Menlo Park
701 Laurel Street
Menlo Park, CA 94025
650-330-6771
ctaylor@menlopark.org

From: Charles Moran [mailto:cfmam@sbcglobal.net] Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 9:29 PM
To: _Planning Commission
Cc: _CCIN; Rojas, Glen; _Transportation
Subject: (1) Traffic Problems -- Oak Grove Ave & Pine Street; (2) Pine Street Parking Regulations

Ladies and Gentlemen: I am writing in regard to the two subject matters to request at least an acknowledgement of several communications to the City of Menlo Park Transportation Department.  

(1) On February 8, 2007, Oak Grove Place Homeowners Association wrote to
the Director of Transportation to outline traffic problems at the corner of Oak Grove Ave. and Pine Street (namely, left turns being allowed from Nativity School parking lot on to Oak Grove Ave. in front of Pine Street.) In that communication, we also offered several possible solutions.  

After follow-up telephone calls to the Transportation Director on March 27, 2007 and June 4, 2007, and a follow-up letter dated August 29, 2007
(with copies to City Manager and City Council), we have yet to receive
any acknowledgement from any City department regarding action being taken on our concerns.  

(2) On May 5, 2007, 23 residents of Pine Street, Menlo Park, signed
and sent a petition to the City of Menlo Park Transportation Department requesting that the City extend one-side-of-the-street parking uniformly the entire length of Pine Street because of unsafe conditions (in short, if large vehicles are allowed to park on both sides of Pine Street, it is virtually impossible for emergency vehicles to traverse the street.) To my knowledge, no one has received any indication from the City that any action on this problem is being considered.  

I will greatly appreciate a response regarding the status of these two safety concerns.
Thank you.  

Marie Moran (Secty to Oak Grove Place HOA) 1160-F Pine Street, Menlo Park Received on Wed Nov 14 16:09:16 2007